NS Pharma Inc, a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company, announced on Friday that its parent company, Japan-based Nippon Shinyaku Co Ltd, has entered into an option agreement with Baltimore-based Elixirgen Therapeutics Inc, under which Nippon Shinyaku may obtain the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialise EXG-7001 for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

The agreement was facilitated by the NS Pharma Innovation Research Partnering (IRP) team, located in Cambridge, MA.

EXG-7001 is an investigational, locally administered, mRNA based therapeutic drug that expresses full-length human dystrophin protein. Regardless of genetic mutation, it is intended to suppress local muscle dysfunction by expressing the full-length dystrophin protein, which is deficient within the muscle cells of patients with DMD. EXG-7001 is in preclinical development for the treatment of DMD. Elixirgen is currently preparing for clinical trials in the US.

Following the exercise of the option rights by Nippon Shinyaku and regulatory approval in the US, NS Pharma says that it intends to commercialise EXG-7001.